Marvel Contest of Champions Ascension+ Reveal: Science and Skill Classes, Plus Sandman and Jabari Panther Buffs

Kabam has revealed the Science and Skill Champions joining the Marvel Contest of Champions Ascension+ pool, along with significant tune-ups for Sandman and Jabari Panther. Mystic and Cosmic reveals are coming next week.

Marvel Contest of Champions has revealed the next batch of Champions joining the Ascension+ pool — this time from the Science and Skill classes. Two veteran defenders are also getting meaningful tune-ups as part of the launch: Sandman and Jabari Panther both head into the Ascension era with new tools.

Science Class Additions

The Science class enters Ascension+ with a mix of established threats and one recipient of a major rework:

Spider-Punk
High Evolutionary
Mister Negative
Mister Fantastic
Sandman — Buffed

Kabam's design team explained that Science Champions are typically built around applying Debuffs and then capitalizing on the resulting fight state. Offensively, most of this group already has the tools to handle opponents who gain a lot of Power — with Sasquatch and Mojo already revealed, the team hinted that Mystic will receive its own take on that power-punishment identity in a future update.

Sandman Tune-Up

Sandman receives an important rework. The goal is to bring him up to the level of a moderate defender who can stall an attacker rather than one who roadblocks and KOs them outright. Key changes to Sandman's kit:

Increased Critical Resist base stat
Increased Defender Resistance Ups gained when his Light/Medium is Blocked
Reduced Resistance Ups lost when suffering a Skill DoT
Changed Skill DoTs that remove Resistance Ups from Poison to Incinerate (Bleed and Shock unchanged)
Increased Resistance Ups lost during Unstable when Hit/Blocking
Changed all Defender Resistance Ups gained on Special Attack 1 and 2 to trigger on activation
Unstable is now paused during all Special Attacks
Reduced Resistance Ups spent on Special Attack 1 and 2 knockdowns during Unstable

The cumulative effect: Sandman gets more freedom to execute his offensive loop, regardless of which Special Attack he is leaning on, and — if optimized — he should be able to land one additional knockdown during his offensive loop for a noticeable damage bump. Defensively, Sandman can now actually enter his Unstable state, but that state can also be ended prematurely by a clever attacker.

Skill Class Additions

The Skill class brings another strong roster, anchored by one of the most requested buffs in recent memory:

Baron Zemo
Korg — Buffed
Black Panther (Civil War)
Patriot
Jabari Panther — Buffed

These Champions generally focus on removing Debuffs applied to them and dealing solid damage through Critical Hits or Bleed.

Jabari Panther Tune-Up

Jabari Panther's tune-up focuses entirely on offense — specifically, easing her loop and making her more reliable against Science Champions. The full change list:

Added a Huntress Charge gain on Intercept
Separated the cooldown for gaining a Huntress Charge due to Miss/Evade/Cleanse from other methods of Huntress Charge gain
Removed the Attacker limitation on gaining Huntress Charges from Purifying Debuffs above 5 Charges
Increased the Huntress Charge threshold for automatic Hunt activation from 10 to 20
Added the ability to manually trigger the Hunt with a Special Attack while having at least 10 Huntress Charges
Added an automatic trigger to the Hunt when the Opponent would Evade or cause an attack to Miss with at least 10 Huntress Charges
Reduced Potency of Precision during the Hunt
Slightly reduced Bleed Potencies on Critical Hit and Heavy during the Hunt
Added a Cruelty replacement against Bleed Immune Science Champions

"The net result is undoubtedly a higher practical damage output in more fights, and especially so when she can hunt Debuffs to Cleanse." — Kabam Design Team

Kabam notes that tune-ups like this usually consist exclusively of "number go up" adjustments because those are easier to implement and understand. In Jabari Panther's case, however, there were meaningful quality-of-life changes around her Huntress Charge gain and Hunt activation that the team felt were critical to making her feel like a fun, versatile Champion. Because those changes lead to substantial effective damage increases — between ramping more quickly and her new autonomy over when to deal damage — the devs tuned down some of her other effects to balance the kit. The net is a genuine practical damage increase in more fights, and an even bigger one in any fight where she can Cleanse Debuffs via the Hunt.

What's Next

Kabam closed the reveal by confirming that a follow-up post will detail the Mystic and Cosmic Champions joining the Ascension+ Base Pool next week. With Sandman finally getting a functional defensive kit and Jabari Panther gaining the autonomy to actually use her Huntress mechanics, the Science and Skill entries into Ascension+ look like genuine ecosystem upgrades — not just number boosts.